guardianactual
MuscleChemistry Registered Member
by Meghan Kahnle
People say there is a time and a place for everything, but depending on your training goals, there may be no time for alcohol and no place to get away from it. I feel your pain, and I've found a fun solution! Just because you've made the healthy choice to not to drink doesn't mean you can't have fun with your drinks!
Don't worry: these drinks look like they're harder to make than they actually are. I like to use a lot of color and make things pretty, but you can make any of these in your shaker bottle—you just need to spend a little extra time preparing more ingredients.
One of the best parts about these branched chain amino acid (BCAA) mocktail recipes is that they're easy to double or triple, so you can share them with a group. Even your non-fit friends and family will have to agree that they're delicious!
Get creative, have fun, and share your own concoctions in the comments section below!
1 RASPBERRY-LEMON MOJITO
Whoever decided that adding mint to a beverage was a good idea is a true hero. Combining mint with the always-yummy lemon-raspberry duo makes for a doubly yummy treat. It's difficult to make your BCAAs taste any better than this.
Ingredients
6 raspberries
8 mint leaves
Juice from 1/2 lemon
Ice
1 scoop Optimum Nutrition Raspberry Lemon Pro BCAA
Directions
Muddle raspberries and mint leaves.
Add 8 oz water.
Add lemon juice.
Stir in BCAAs.
Pour over ice.
Raspberry-Lemon Mojito PDF (25.9 KB)
2 SUMMER TEA
Make this delicious beverage, and you'll imagine sitting on a front porch swing enjoying the evening breeze. Or, you might imagine how the BCAAs are helping your muscles grow. Put the two images together and you have yourself a swole 1940s gentleman suitor!
Ingredients
1 tea bag
Sweetener of your choice
3 lemon wedges
Ice
1 scoop Bodybuilding.com Foundation Series BCAA Powder
Directions
Brew a cup of your favorite tea in about 6 oz of water. I use black tea.
Add the sweetener of your choice while the tea is still hot.
Add a handful of ice to tea.
Stir in 1 scoop of BCAAs and add lemon wedges.
Summer Tea PDF (26 KB)
3 PEACH-MANGO SANGRIA
Order sangria at a restaurant and you'll get a bunch of sugar with your alcohol. Make a healthier choice and try this low-calorie option. It tastes just as good but doesn't include all of the junk!
Ingredients
18 oz soda water
12 oz water
1 peach
1 mango
1 apple
1 scoop Optimum Nutrition Peach Mango Pro BCAA
Directions
Add 1 scoop of BCAAs to 12 oz of water in a pitcher.
Cut up peach, mango, and apple into bite-sized pieces and add them to the pitcher.
Add the soda water.
Stir!
Peach-Mango Sangria PDF (26 KB)
4 KIWI-STRAWBERRY BLITZ
BCAAs usually taste great on their own, but adding real fruit to your refreshing cup of muscle-building aminos just makes a good thing better. If you like kiwi and strawberry, then you'll love this delicious drink. Bottoms up!
Ingredients
1 kiwi
2 strawberries
Juice from 1/2 lemon
4 oz water
6 oz soda water
Ice
1 scoop Gaspari Nutrition Kiwi-Strawberry Aminolast
Directions
Add 1 scoop of aminos to 4 oz of water in a glass.
Cut up strawberries and kiwi and add them to the glass.
Add lemon juice and ice.
Top it off with soda water if you like bubbles.
Kiwi-Strawberry Blitz PDF (26.1 KB)
5 BLUE MARTINI
You can stir all these ingredients together in a regular cup, but it's way more fun and special to mix them up in a martini (or protein) shaker and pour the result into a fancy glass. James Bond would wholeheartedly approve.
Ingredients
8 oz water
1 strawberry
Juice from 1/2 lemon
Ice
1 scoop BPI Sports Blue Raspberry Best BCAA
Directions
Add 1 scoop BCAAs to 8 oz of water.
Add the fresh juice from 1/2 a lemon.
Pour into shaker with ice and shake.
Pour into glass and garnish with a strawberry and lemon twist.
Blue Martini PDF (26 KB)
6 ORANGE ROSEMARY COOLER
Rosemary and cinnamon add adult complexity to your drink's flavor profile. Say goodbye to your super sweet BCAAs and enjoy something different. This is a recipe you can double or triple and bring to a party—it's really that good.
Ingredients
4 oz water
4 oz soda water
1/4 orange
2 rosemary stalks
Ice
1 tsp cinnamon
1 scoop Optimum Nutrition Orange Cooler AmiN.O. Energy
Directions
Chop rosemary stalks into small pieces.
Mix cinnamon and rosemary into water. Pour into ice-cube trays. Let freeze.
Stir 1 scoop of BCAAs in 4 oz of water.
Cut up orange and add it to glass.
Add soda water.
Pour drink over cinnamon and rosemary ice cubes.
OPTIONS
Instead of making ice cubes, you can boil rosemary and cinnamon in water with your choice of sweetener to make simple syrup, and then add that to your beverage. Or, you can just add rosemary stalks and a cinnamon stick to your drink!
Orange Rosemary Cooler PDF (26.7 KB)
7 LEMON-LIME MARGARITA
Missing your Monday margarita? Now you can make it without having to feel guilty! This recipe is fun to drink, super easy to make, and tastes great. It's the perfect fix for any nutrition-conscious margarita connoisseur.
Ingredients
8 oz water
Juice from 1/2 lime
Ice
Rim salt
1 scoop Cellucor Cor-Performance Lemon-Lime Beta-BCAA
Directions
Blend water, ice, BCAAs, and fresh lime juice until you have a slushy consistency.
Use a lemon wedge to wet the rim of a glass, and then dip the glass in a plate of salt.
Carefully pour the BCAA slushy into the salted glass and enjoy!
Lemon-Lime Margarita PDF (26.1 KB)
People say there is a time and a place for everything, but depending on your training goals, there may be no time for alcohol and no place to get away from it. I feel your pain, and I've found a fun solution! Just because you've made the healthy choice to not to drink doesn't mean you can't have fun with your drinks!
Don't worry: these drinks look like they're harder to make than they actually are. I like to use a lot of color and make things pretty, but you can make any of these in your shaker bottle—you just need to spend a little extra time preparing more ingredients.
One of the best parts about these branched chain amino acid (BCAA) mocktail recipes is that they're easy to double or triple, so you can share them with a group. Even your non-fit friends and family will have to agree that they're delicious!
Get creative, have fun, and share your own concoctions in the comments section below!
1 RASPBERRY-LEMON MOJITO
Whoever decided that adding mint to a beverage was a good idea is a true hero. Combining mint with the always-yummy lemon-raspberry duo makes for a doubly yummy treat. It's difficult to make your BCAAs taste any better than this.
Ingredients
6 raspberries
8 mint leaves
Juice from 1/2 lemon
Ice
1 scoop Optimum Nutrition Raspberry Lemon Pro BCAA
Directions
Muddle raspberries and mint leaves.
Add 8 oz water.
Add lemon juice.
Stir in BCAAs.
Pour over ice.
Raspberry-Lemon Mojito PDF (25.9 KB)
2 SUMMER TEA
Make this delicious beverage, and you'll imagine sitting on a front porch swing enjoying the evening breeze. Or, you might imagine how the BCAAs are helping your muscles grow. Put the two images together and you have yourself a swole 1940s gentleman suitor!
Ingredients
1 tea bag
Sweetener of your choice
3 lemon wedges
Ice
1 scoop Bodybuilding.com Foundation Series BCAA Powder
Directions
Brew a cup of your favorite tea in about 6 oz of water. I use black tea.
Add the sweetener of your choice while the tea is still hot.
Add a handful of ice to tea.
Stir in 1 scoop of BCAAs and add lemon wedges.
Summer Tea PDF (26 KB)
3 PEACH-MANGO SANGRIA
Order sangria at a restaurant and you'll get a bunch of sugar with your alcohol. Make a healthier choice and try this low-calorie option. It tastes just as good but doesn't include all of the junk!
Ingredients
18 oz soda water
12 oz water
1 peach
1 mango
1 apple
1 scoop Optimum Nutrition Peach Mango Pro BCAA
Directions
Add 1 scoop of BCAAs to 12 oz of water in a pitcher.
Cut up peach, mango, and apple into bite-sized pieces and add them to the pitcher.
Add the soda water.
Stir!
Peach-Mango Sangria PDF (26 KB)
4 KIWI-STRAWBERRY BLITZ
BCAAs usually taste great on their own, but adding real fruit to your refreshing cup of muscle-building aminos just makes a good thing better. If you like kiwi and strawberry, then you'll love this delicious drink. Bottoms up!
Ingredients
1 kiwi
2 strawberries
Juice from 1/2 lemon
4 oz water
6 oz soda water
Ice
1 scoop Gaspari Nutrition Kiwi-Strawberry Aminolast
Directions
Add 1 scoop of aminos to 4 oz of water in a glass.
Cut up strawberries and kiwi and add them to the glass.
Add lemon juice and ice.
Top it off with soda water if you like bubbles.
Kiwi-Strawberry Blitz PDF (26.1 KB)
5 BLUE MARTINI
You can stir all these ingredients together in a regular cup, but it's way more fun and special to mix them up in a martini (or protein) shaker and pour the result into a fancy glass. James Bond would wholeheartedly approve.
Ingredients
8 oz water
1 strawberry
Juice from 1/2 lemon
Ice
1 scoop BPI Sports Blue Raspberry Best BCAA
Directions
Add 1 scoop BCAAs to 8 oz of water.
Add the fresh juice from 1/2 a lemon.
Pour into shaker with ice and shake.
Pour into glass and garnish with a strawberry and lemon twist.
Blue Martini PDF (26 KB)
6 ORANGE ROSEMARY COOLER
Rosemary and cinnamon add adult complexity to your drink's flavor profile. Say goodbye to your super sweet BCAAs and enjoy something different. This is a recipe you can double or triple and bring to a party—it's really that good.
Ingredients
4 oz water
4 oz soda water
1/4 orange
2 rosemary stalks
Ice
1 tsp cinnamon
1 scoop Optimum Nutrition Orange Cooler AmiN.O. Energy
Directions
Chop rosemary stalks into small pieces.
Mix cinnamon and rosemary into water. Pour into ice-cube trays. Let freeze.
Stir 1 scoop of BCAAs in 4 oz of water.
Cut up orange and add it to glass.
Add soda water.
Pour drink over cinnamon and rosemary ice cubes.
OPTIONS
Instead of making ice cubes, you can boil rosemary and cinnamon in water with your choice of sweetener to make simple syrup, and then add that to your beverage. Or, you can just add rosemary stalks and a cinnamon stick to your drink!
Orange Rosemary Cooler PDF (26.7 KB)
7 LEMON-LIME MARGARITA
Missing your Monday margarita? Now you can make it without having to feel guilty! This recipe is fun to drink, super easy to make, and tastes great. It's the perfect fix for any nutrition-conscious margarita connoisseur.
Ingredients
8 oz water
Juice from 1/2 lime
Ice
Rim salt
1 scoop Cellucor Cor-Performance Lemon-Lime Beta-BCAA
Directions
Blend water, ice, BCAAs, and fresh lime juice until you have a slushy consistency.
Use a lemon wedge to wet the rim of a glass, and then dip the glass in a plate of salt.
Carefully pour the BCAA slushy into the salted glass and enjoy!
Lemon-Lime Margarita PDF (26.1 KB)
